 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Founded | [Melbourne 2007] |
| Founder | Harry Banaharis |
| Defunct | 11 September 2013 |
| Fate | Dissolved |
| Headquarters | , |
Key people | David Koadlow, Chairman, Nick Argyrou, CEO, Dr Graeme Smith, CSO |
| Services | Genetic testing |
| Owner | MyGene Holdings Pty Ltd |
Number of employees | 15 |
| Subsidiaries |
|
| Website | web |
This article relates to the former Australian company MyGene Pty Ltd (ACN 137 407 848 ) that traded between 2007 and 2013 and does not relate to the Australian company MyGene Pty Ltd incorporated in 2020 (ACN 646 563 064) and currently trading.
MyGene Pty. Ltd. was a privately held genetic testing services company located in Melbourne, Australia that owned and operated an accredited on-site laboratory.
MyGene specialised in the development of genetic tests and interpretive reports that assessed the genetic contribution of personal response to diet, also known as nutrigenetics.
MyGene was conceived and established by Harry Banaharis during work done initially in profiling umbilical cord blood and later mesenchymal stem cells. The business value proposition anticipated a desire by individuals to understand their genetic individuality and how such knowledge could be used to personalise diet and exercise choices for improved health outcomes. In its initial conception the business would sub-contract a laboratory to perform the genetic test and provide an interpretive web-based report. After some attempts to secure Australian laboratories to perform the testing in a commercially viable manner he decided to establish his own.
In 2006, he funded and deployed a prototype gene testing laboratory within the Alfred Hospital research centre utilising a Biotage Pyrosequencer instrument for analysing epigenetic changes in the promoter of TGF-beta gene to generate data towards his Honours thesis. [1]
In 2007 he established the MyGene "DNA to data" commercial laboratory in Melbourne CBD and released the first prototype direct to consumer genetic testing kit, the Sports Performance Gene Test. It analysed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 2 genes known to vary in power versus endurance athletes, ACTN3 and ACE I/D and a gene associated with impact sports head injury, APOE4. The kit included 2 buccal swabs to ensure sufficient material was collected, a card that contained the access code for retrieving the web-based results and an envelope to mail the swabs to the laboratory.
In 2009 Harry Banaharis was joined by Nick Argyrou, a property developer and former SelecTV director and his wife Helen Argyrou, a pharmacy entrepreneur. The Argyrou's saw an opportunity to innovate in the crowded meal replacement market and the newly resourced company was oriented towards pursuing the development of nutrigenetic products and services.
Graeme Smith, a nutritional biochemist and biomedical researcher, was recruited to help formulate the meal replacement variants and develop accompanying genetically prescribed weight loss programs.
In 2010, David Koadlow, also a major investor in another Australian genetic testing company, Lumigenix (The Age: Tapping into your Genes [2] ), acquired a controlling share in MyGene and helped fuel its transition into the world's first genetic testing company that offered a range of genetically matched meal replacement formulations known as the MyGene Weightloss Complete Genetic Program.
In 2011 Dr Les Sheffield, founder of MyDNA (MyDNA - About Us [3] ), became a member of MyGene's scientific advisory board (Bloomberg [4] ).
MyGene's novel approach to predicting the hereditary component of dietary response was to test for variations in genes that were known to be associated with disorders of glucose and lipid metabolism (see USapplication 2012258183 ).
According to this method, the greater the number of genetic variants that an individual was found to carry that increased the risk of metabolic disturbances in glucose metabolism, the greater the sensitivity to dietary carbohydrates. Similarly, the number of genetic variations associated with adverse lipid metabolism was considered to be proportional to dietary fat sensitivity.
Sensitivity to a macronutrient would indicate that its reduction in the diet may have conferred increased metabolic and health benefits. Further refinements to personalising diet included tests for genes associated with gluten sensitivity, lactose intolerance, salt palatability, appetite control, folate and Vitamin D metabolism.
| Accreditations |
|---|
| National Association of Testing Authorities: accredited for Genetic Testing and Molecular Genetics |
| Royal College of Pathologists of Australia: accredited for Genetic Testing |
In 2011 MyGene brought to market a nutrigenetic dietary program to optimise weight loss that was composed of a genetic test, a genetically allocated meal replacement formulation and 12-week dietary program (MyGene Weightloss Complete [5] [6] ). Via a collaboration with The Pharmacy Guild of Australia (Australia's chief pharmacy body representing community pharmacies) [7] a select number of participating pharmacies provided MyGene consulting rooms whereby customers had DNA samples collected and were counselled on the type of dietary regime required (according to their genetic test results) to achieve their desired weight management goals. The program was also offered in a clinical setting for the treatment of obesity. [8]
Despite the support of the Pharmacy Guild the claims in MyGene's nutrigenetic dietary program were met with scepticism particularly as supporting clinical research was found to be lacking. [9] [10] [11] Dr. Ken Harvey, from the school of public health at La Trobe University challenged MyGene to provide evidence on the sensitivity and specificity of the tests being offered. [12] With no response to the increasing number of questions being raised about MyGene's nutrigenetic test and a campaign by the Professional Pharmacists Australia association to have Pharmacy endorsement rescinded [13] the Weightloss Complete Genetic Program was withdrawn from the market during 2012.
In 2016, in a recapitulation of MyGene's contentious reception in the Australian market, the myDNA pharmacogenetic test [14] met with similar scepticism [15] regarding clinical utility and patient benefits. [16] Like MyGene's nutrigenetic test, myDNA's pharmacogenetic test is being distributed via pharmacy outlets. [17]
On 11 September 2013, following long standing differences between its major shareholders MyGene was placed in voluntary administration by the majority owner, David Koadlow, and wound up. [18]
Insulin resistance (IR) is a pathological condition in which cells either fail to respond normally to the hormone insulin or downregulate insulin receptors in response to hyperinsulinemia.
DNA paternity testing is the use of DNA profiles to determine whether an individual is the biological parent of another individual. Paternity testing can be especially important when the rights and duties of the father are in issue and a child's paternity is in doubt. Tests can also determine the likelihood of someone being a biological grandparent. Though genetic testing is the most reliable standard, older methods also exist, including ABO blood group typing, analysis of various other proteins and enzymes, or using human leukocyte antigen antigens. The current techniques for paternity testing are using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Paternity testing can now also be performed while the woman is still pregnant from a blood draw.
Pharmacogenomics is the study of the role of the genome in drug response. Its name reflects its combining of pharmacology and genomics. Pharmacogenomics analyzes how the genetic makeup of a patient affects their response to drugs. It deals with the influence of acquired and inherited genetic variation on drug response, by correlating DNA mutations with pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and/or immunogenic endpoints.
Inborn errors of metabolism form a large class of genetic diseases involving congenital disorders of enzyme activities. The majority are due to defects of single genes that code for enzymes that facilitate conversion of various substances (substrates) into others (products). In most of the disorders, problems arise due to accumulation of substances which are toxic or interfere with normal function, or due to the effects of reduced ability to synthesize essential compounds. Inborn errors of metabolism are now often referred to as congenital metabolic diseases or inherited metabolic disorders. To this concept it's possible to include the new term of Enzymopathy. This term was created following the study of Biodynamic Enzymology, a science based on the study of the enzymes and their derivated products. Finally, inborn errors of metabolism were studied for the first time by British physician Archibald Garrod (1857–1936), in 1908. He is known for work that prefigured the "one gene-one enzyme" hypothesis, based on his studies on the nature and inheritance of alkaptonuria. His seminal text, Inborn Errors of Metabolism, was published in 1923.
Specific dynamic action (SDA), also known as thermic effect of food (TEF) or dietary induced thermogenesis (DIT), is the amount of energy expenditure above the basal metabolic rate due to the cost of processing food for use and storage. Heat production by brown adipose tissue which is activated after consumption of a meal is an additional component of dietary induced thermogenesis. The thermic effect of food is one of the components of metabolism along with resting metabolic rate and the exercise component. A commonly used estimate of the thermic effect of food is about 10% of one's caloric intake, though the effect varies substantially for different food components. For example, dietary fat is very easy to process and has very little thermic effect, while protein is hard to process and has a much larger thermic effect.
Nutritional genomics, also known as nutrigenomics, is a science studying the relationship between human genome, human nutrition and health. People in the field work toward developing an understanding of how the whole body responds to a food via systems biology, as well as single gene/single food compound relationships. Nutritional genomics or Nutrigenomics is the relation between food and inherited genes, it was first expressed in 2001.
Thiopurine methyltransferase or thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the TPMT gene. A pseudogene for this locus is located on chromosome 18q.
Medical genetics is the branch of medicine that involves the diagnosis and management of hereditary disorders. Medical genetics differs from human genetics in that human genetics is a field of scientific research that may or may not apply to medicine, while medical genetics refers to the application of genetics to medical care. For example, research on the causes and inheritance of genetic disorders would be considered within both human genetics and medical genetics, while the diagnosis, management, and counselling people with genetic disorders would be considered part of medical genetics.
Parkway East Hospital is a 143-bed private healthcare facility located at the junction of Joo Chiat Place and Telok Kurau Road in the East of Singapore. It was formerly known as East Shore Hospital or East Shore Medical Centre, The American Hospital of Singapore, and Saint Mark's Hospital.
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AmpliChip CYP450 Test is a clinical test from Roche. The test aims to find the specific gene types of the patient that will determine how he or she metabolizes certain medicines, therefore guides the doctors to prescribe medicine for best effectiveness and least side effects.
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